Swedish Championship Series – Official Rules

Swedish Championship Series – Official Rules

Official rules

Rules will be updated during 2023 when the venue for the 2024 final has been decided and the format may change accordingly.

Rules:
1. Summary
The IFPA Swedish Championship Series is an annual pinball competition where the qualification is done over a whole calendar year (from 1st January through 31st of Dec). All results of the IFPA sanctioned tournaments held in Sweden are used for the qualification of the IFPA Swedish Championship Series Final. At the beginning of the next calendar year the final will be played with the 64 best players from the qualification and the champion is crowned.

  1. Competition Details
    2.1. Qualification
    Unlike most tournaments where the qualification process takes place over a couple of days at the tournament site, qualifying for the IFPA Swedish Championship Series is based on results from all of the IFPA endorsed tournaments held in Sweden (including every side tournament, the SweCS finals, any EPC, ECS, and/or IFPA WC, held within Sweden that year).

In the event that any players are tied with the same amount of SweCS ranking points, we will look at their best event(s) until the tie can be resolved.
If any of the top 64 players are unable to participate, vacant places will be made available for the next best players who qualified in places 65+.
Everyone who is qualified for the tournament can participate (no limitation based on nationality in the IFPA system).
The slot for the IFPA European Championship Series is reserved for the best player without being direct qualified for the ECS Finals (no limitation based on nationality).

2.2. Scoring
For each player, the total sum of WPPR scores received for the tournaments played in Sweden during the year count toward the Swedish Championship Series.

2.3. Fees
The entry fee for each event is determined by the organizers.

2.4 Prizes
The winner of the final will hold the title “Swedish Championship Series Champion” for one year or the next SweCS final. The top qualifier will earn the title of “Swedish Pinball Player of the Year. “

2.5. Finals Format
1. Seeding of finalists

Once all participants are finalized, the 64 players will be seeded based on their SweCS rankings position at the end of the calendar year. In the event that any players are tied with the same amount of SweCS WPPR points, we will look at the overall WPPR rank of those players as of the end of that calendar year.

  1. Machines Used

The games chosen will be based on what is available at the SweCS Final host site.

  1. Qualifying Format

Head to head, Round Robin in four groups of 16. We will use Matchplay. The software chooses the starting position of the players. Top 6 per group advance, decided by number of wins. All other players will be ranked based on the number of wins in their group.

If players end up on the same number of points, a tie breaker will be played on a random machine when it’s for a bye or qualification. The starting position in the tie break will be chosen by coin toss.

3.1 Group pairings

Group A (1,8,9,16,17,24,25,32,33,40,41,48,49,56,57,64)
Group B (2,7,10,15,18,23,26,31,34,39,42,47,50,55,58,63)
Group C (3,6,11,14,19,22,27,30,35,38,43,46,51,54,59,62)
Group D (4,5,12,13,20,21,28,29,36,37,44,45,52,53,60,61)

  1. Finals Format

Players will be placed in a single elimination bracket. Top 2 qualifiers from each group will receive 1 bye.

First round pairings are as follows:

A3 vs. D6, A4 vs. D5, A5 vs. D4, A6 vs. D3
B3 vs. C6, B4 vs. C5, B5 vs. C4, B6 vs. C3

Second round pairings are as follows:

A3/D6 winner vs. C2
A4/D5 winner vs. C1
A5/D4 winner vs. B1
A6/D3 winner vs. B2

B3/C6 winner vs. D2
B4/C5 winner vs. D1
B5/C4 winner vs. A1
B6/C3 winner vs. A2

Third round pairings are as follows:

A1/C4/B5 winner vs. B2/D3/A6 winner,
B1/D4/A5 winner vs. A2/C3/B6 winner,
C1/A4/D5 winner vs. D2/B3/C6 winner,
D1/B4/C5 winner vs. C2/A3/D6 winner,

Fourth round pairings are as follows:

A1/B2/D3/C4/B5/A6 winner vs. D1/C2/A3/B4/C5/D6 winner
B1/A2/C3/D4/A5/B6 winner vs. C1/D2/B3/A4/D5/C6 winner

Two winners of round 4 play for the IFPA Swedish Championship Series Pinball Championship.
Two losers of round 4 play in the consolation Final for 3rd/4th place.

Each match will be a best-of-seven. The higher qualified player will have choice of machine for the 1st game. The match will alternate between machines chosen by each player, until someone has won 4 times. A machine may not be played more than once in the same match. Once a player verbally announces their game choice, that decision will be locked in and cannot be changed.

The winner of the match advances to the next round, while the loser is eliminated.
The 3rd/4th place Consolation Final will be played as a best-of-three instead of a best-of-seven like all other rounds, using the same rules.

  1. Malfunctions and Rulings
    All rulings and malfunctions will be based on the rules for the IFPA World Pinball Championship. Those are available on the IFPA website. Please ignore any sections above this as that relates to the format of the World Championship.

The IFPA Swedish Championship Series was devised by IFPA Sweden.